Some Characterizations of VNL Rings

A ring R is said to be von Newmann local (VNL) if for any a ∈ R, either a or 1 ?a is (von Neumann) regular. The class of VNL rings lies properly between exchange rings and (von Neumann) regular rings. We characterize abelian VNL rings. We also characterize and classify arbitrary VNL rings without an infinite set of orthogonal idempotents; and also the VNL rings having a primitive idempotent e such that eRe is not a division ring. We prove that a semiperfect ring R is VNL if and only if for any right uni-modular row (a ₁, a ₂) ∈ R ², one of the a _i 's is regular in R. Formal triangular matrix rings that are VNL are also characterized. As a corollary, it is shown that an upper triangular matrix ring T _n (R) is VNL if and only if n = 2 or 3 and R is a division ring.